15 Years Since The Hobbit Started Filming: Why the Trilogy Almost Never Happened

Hard to believe: 15 years ago today the Hobbit trilogy startet filming. Looking back, it’s almost a miracle that these films were ever made. Their production history was a real – sorry for this – "There and Back Again – and back again."

Legal Hurdles

The relationship between Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema following The Lord of the Rings was anything but rosy. In 2005, Jackson even sued the studio, alleging that income, including merchandising revenue, had been withheld from him. According to Jackson, it wasn’t a huge deal to him personally, and he didn't expect it to affect future collaborations. However, in 2007, Robert Shaye, co-founder of New Line, thundered that Jackson would never film for the studio again! (A few flops later, however, the studio was ready to talk again.)

Once that matter was settled, the Tolkien Estate, along with HarperCollins, sued New Line Cinema in an attempt to stop the Hobbit adaptation. This one was settled out of court, leading to the long-awaited announcement of a director in April 2008. No, not Peter Jackson. He was on board as a producer, while Guillermo del Toro took the director's chair to helm the two Hobbit films. Yes, back then, only two films were planned. Speaking of which:

Working Without a Green Light

For two long years, del Toro and his team worked on the project, designing creatures and sets. The problem was, there had never been an official "green light" for The Hobbit from the higher-ups! On top of that, MGM was suddenly on the brink of bankruptcy. During a press conference on May 28, 2010, del Toro sounded genuinely desperate:

"There cannot be any start dates until the MGM situation gets resolved.... We have designed all the creatures. We've designed the sets and the wardrobe. We have done animatics and planned very lengthy action sequences. We have scary sequences and funny sequences and we are very, very prepared for when it's finally triggered, but we don't know anything until MGM is solved."

A Rescue with Obstacles

Two days later, he left the project. Yet, months would pass before Peter Jackson finally took over the director's chair! By the time he did, there was hardly any prep time left for such a massive undertaking. Jackson had to rely on del Toro’s pre-production work, which was certainly great but didn't quite match his own vision. Consequently, production on what were now three Hobbit films began without a finished script and under enormous time pressure.

There’s so much more to tell, but let’s leave it at this brief look behind the scenes. I’d say we can consider ourselves lucky that we got these movies at all. Even though I love The Lord of the Rings significantly more, I take my hat off to Peter Jackson and the crew for bringing these films to life, especially for the fans. And somehow, I still enjoy the Hobbit movies anyway – particularly for the barrel scene and Smaug’s first appearance.